Jose Maria Olazabal aims big at the Irish Open – Golf news
After sharing the second spot after round two of The Irish Open, Jose Maria Olazabal insists that he has not given up hope of winning tournaments again.
The winning European Ryder Cup team captain carded a three-under par 69 to accumulate a seven-under par halfway score and finished just one stroke behind the pace set by the co-leaders, Peter Uihlein and Robert Rock.
He is now hoping to keep the momentum going into the remaining two rounds, in a bid to secure his first European Tour title victory in eight years.
“The captaincy took a lot out of me, I could not dedicate as much time to my game, but now it's over I can spend time on the range working on my game,” he said. “I have never lost hope, that's why I spend hours and hours on the range. Health-wise I have
had problems but at the moment I cannot complain.”
“It's going to be hard for me to remember the last time I won a tournament, but the main goal is to keep improving my game to get myself in positions like this,” added the 47-year-old Spaniard star.
Starting on the back nine of the course, he recorded birdie-bogey-birdie streak, starting from the 11th hole, before adding another two shots on the 17th and the 18th hole.
He then lost another shot on the first hole, his 10th, before recording two birdies and a bogey afterwards, to share the third position with Shane Lowry, Joost Luiten, Ricardo Santos and the overnight leader Oscar Floren.
The world number two Rory McIlroy, who was hoping to find his form at the Carton House Golf Club, faltered for a two-over par two-round score, and missed the cut by two strokes.
Right from the beginning of the 2013 golf season, the Northern Irishman has not been able to maintain consistency in his game that allowed him to secure two major golf championship victories, along with a spot at the top of the Official World Golf Rankings
last season.
He was now really disappointed in disappointing his local fans in Maynooth and left the field in despair.
Tags: